I remember watching a docementary on tuna fishing many years ago. They used heavy rods (very heavy) with a relatively short line on it (maybe 6 feet) that was tied to a very large barbless hook with chicken feathers tied on it. They would get on a school of surface-feeding tuna and begin by tossing the lure over, hooking a fish (immediately) and with a mighty heave, hoisting the fish right up and over their shoulders onto the deck. The fish would come off the barbless hook and someone else would shove it down into the ice-filled hold. The guy with the rod would throw his lure right back into the frenzied school of fish and immediately have another one on. There were several guys all doing this at the same time; it was wild to see the fish flying over the guys' shoulders onto the deck of the boat!

Soon, the more agressive, smaller fish would all be caught, and the larger fish would start biting, so they'd hook two rods and lines to one lure. Then two guys would work together to haul the larger fish up, over and onto the deck. Then it would take three guys and three lines. Finally, they would have four guys with four rods and lines all hooked to the same lure to hoist the very large tuna up and over their shoulders onto the boat. It was crazy to watch!

They eventually had to stop and go find another school because the remaining fish were too large for even four guys to handle that way.

I see that the guy who caught this one fought the fish for well over two hours - that's a little different from the film I described - but a whole lot more sporting.

I know a couple of guys that go in these long tuna trips every couple of years and can't stop talking about going back again. I had no idea those fish could get that big and even though they have fished them I'm pretty sire my friends didn't either as they have not caught anything even half the size of that one.

Even though it looks like a fun trip I can't see myself staying out on a boat for days on end. I love to fish but good hunting trips have priority.

My hunting buddy, Steve just called me from Florida this morning. He was driving to meet some guys he met down there last year who go out onto the Gulf in a 27' boat. He said this time they are going to fish today for Amberjack - same as they did last year. But they are going to spend the night out there on the boat, and tomorrow go after Yellowfin Tuna using strips of the Amberjack for bait!

I told him to take lots of pictures, so hopefully, I'll have a report for you in a couple of days.

That would be great. I drove all the way down there last year in January to fish on the gulf but the weather was so bad we didn't get to go out.

We saved the trip by hunting hods with dogs one day and after some calls I actually got to kill a private land gator living in an irrigation canal. Not very exciting really but makes a great european mount. It still looks really good but just after I finished boiling it and setting it together I did a back flip on the ice in the driveway and landed on it breaking it in half. Its's not perfect but still looks good.

There are still some who insist a scope is not needed for the type hunting they do, ignoring the advances of the last 150 years in optical sights. (Even the ultra-conservative US Army has adopted optical sights.) The idea that in some special circumstances open iron sights or aperture (peep) sights might be more useful is not lost on me, but with the inevitable advance of age comes the reduction in visual acuity needed for using iron sights.
I believe that many who completely resist the idea of...